President Trump has ordered an FBI investigation into sexual assault charges against his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
As AP's Sagar Meghani reports, the president ordered the probe after a deal was reached to advance Kavanaugh's nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The announcement was the latest in the head-spinning series of events with Kavanaugh's high court prospects hanging in the balance. It began with GOP Senator Jeff Flak surprisingly saying he backed Kavanaugh and then saying he wanted a week-long delay on a final vote so the FBI could investigate misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh.
GOP leaders agreed and hours later the president ordered the FBI to launch an investigation he and other Republicans have insisted isn't necessary. Kavanaugh says he will continue to cooperate.
His nomination will not get a vote until late next week.
Sagar Meghani, Washington.
The man leading the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, has agreed to meet privately with lawmakers.
As AP correspondent Rita Foley reports, the meeting is in addition to one Rosenstein has with President Trump.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to speak privately with lawmakers following reports that he had secretly discussed with colleagues, possibly using the Constitution to remove the president from office. He has denied those reports.
Conservative Republican Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina tweets that lawmakers planned to subpoena Rosenstein if he refused to answer questions.
Rosenstein oversees Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Next week, he meets with the president.
Rita Foley, Washington.
For more on these stories, visit our website voanews.com. This is VOA news.
The United States announced Friday it will effectively close its consulate in the Iraqi city of Basra and relocate diplomatic personnel assigned there following increasing threats from Iran and Iranian-backed militia.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as he explained the move, renewed a warning that the United States will hold Iran directly responsible for any attacks on Americans and U.S. diplomatic facilities.
It followed recent rocket attacks that Pompeo said were directed at the consulate in Basra.
The decision adds to mounting tension between Washington and Tehran, which is the target of the increasing U.S. economic sanctions.
The U.N. refugee agency warns that a rise in violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is displacing more people and hampering humanitarian efforts, including operations to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
Lisa Schlein has details.
The main rebel groups - the Allied Democratic Forces (and) National Army for the Liberation of Uganda - have been active in the Beni area for some time. But, UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch tells VOA fighting has reached the city of Beni itself for the first time, creating a very tense situation and making it risky for staff to move around.
WHO reports 154 confirmed and probable cases of Ebola in the area, including 101 deaths. The agency resumed its activities in Beni on Wednesday despite security concerns.
WHO officials say they cannot afford to halt operations and allow the deadly Ebola virus to spread.
Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.
Facebook says millions of accounts were compromised in a security breach.
AP correspondent Warren Levinson has details.
Facebook says the breach allowed hackers access to some 50 million accounts. They got in through a feature called "View As" that allows users to view how their profiles look to outsiders.
The company doesn't know who the hackers are or whey they are based and it wasn't immediately clear whether third party applications were compromised as well. Facebook allows its users to sign onto other applications with their Facebook credentials.
The company, which has two billion users, reset about 90-million log-ins, including anyone who's been the subject of a View As search in the last year.
Facebook doesn't know yet whether the hack had a specific target.
Warren Levinson, New York.
British investigators now say a third Russian military intelligence officer was involved in the poisoning in March of this year, a former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived a March nerve-agent attack, but a local woman not connected to the original assassination attempt died in July after being exposed to the same toxin.
